In Memoriam
Raymond Harris "Harry" Lane
Raymond Harris “Harry” Lane, who was born in Savannah, Georgia on December 1, 1941, died on July 9, 2013 in Hospice Savannah.
Harry Lane
1963 graduation
Harry grew up on Combahee Plantation in White Hall, South Carolina. He attended Middlesex School for Boys in Concord, Massachusetts, where he was the first to be captain of two sports (baseball and hockey). Harry graduated from Yale with honors in history.
He was a man of many talents and vocations: a successful buyer and seller of woodworking and shop tools, a diesel mechanic, a charter pilot, and a maker of banjos and fine furniture. Harry traveled extensively.
His favorite destinations were India, which he visited nine times, and London, where he bought numerous books for his collection.
Harry is survived by his siblings, Mills B. Lane III, Louise Lane Talbot, Remer Y. Lane, Jr., and Thomas Middlebrooks Lane, and a number of nieces and nephews.
Neil Thompson remembers:
“Harry Lane was the strongest guy in our class without question. What a commanding presence! Nobody, absolutely nobody messed with Harry Lane, and yet I never saw him belligerent. He had a fabulous smile and laugh and some rather strong political opinions. I saw him in front of Calhoun College in June 1963 on his BMW motorcycle. Exams were over. I asked, ‘Harry, where are you going?’ He replied, ‘I am going to see the world, young man.’ And so he did. Everyone who knew him has a Harry Lane story. Wonderful, fabulous man.”
Jon Larson remembers Harry Lane as follows:
“Harry was almost a fifth roommate in the Calhoun quad I shared with Bill Robbins, Juan Rodriguez and Rusty Hale. He had a single down the hall and dropped by often. I remember him as a gentle giant of a man. I used to work out on occasion with Harry in the weight room in the basement of Calhoun. I got my workout just putting weights on the bar and covering Harry with the monster loads he was hoisting with biceps the size of my thigh.
Harry visited Karen and me as newlyweds in Honolulu. I tried many times to contact Harry over the years to catch up, but alas never any response. Karen, who is the better judge of character of the two of us, really liked Harry deep down and sensed that he was very sensitive and hugely intelligent underneath his huge frame of an exterior and his Marlon Brando wannabe persona.”
Bill Bell remembers:
“Harry was close to being a “legend in his own time”. In fact, at a lunch gathering of Calhoun College friends at our 50th, a major topic was “has anyone heard from Harry Lane?” Sadly, we now read that he died a month after our gathering. Harry was a wonderful mixture of Marine Corps Platoon Leader Training lingo, Marlon Brando lines, physical presence, and serious student who challenged the intellectual presumptions of some professors. If there was anybody who you would want to be in a foxhole with, it would be Harry Lane. I considered it a real honor occasionally to be invited to hop on the back of his motorcycle for a ride out to the Big and Tall menswear store, the only place with clothes his size. Everybody who knew this gentle giant will always have vivid memories of Harry Lane.”